Death Valley National Park

Did you know that Ridgecrest, CA is the gateway to Death Valley National Park? Me neither. I didn't know Ridgecrest even existed until I married Roger and found out that his Uncle and cousin lived there. Isn't it interesting that growing up I lived only a few hours from this park and have NEVER been there? Well, that atrocity has been remedied. And thankfully the park temperature only reached 92 degrees.

Isn't the contrast from Sequoia to Death Valley absolutely amazing?


We had a picnic at the sand dunes - and drank a lot of liquids.



We wanted to go to Scotty's Castle, but they were redoing the road and we didn't want to take our van on the gravel road. We'll wait until it's paved again. However, not going to Scotty's Castle freed up some time and we headed down to Bad Water Basin - 282 feet below sea level - the lowest point in the United States.





I was hypnotized by the mirages. I've never had that experience before. The dusty sand on the horizon really did look like a lake in the distance. On our way out of the park toward Las Vegas, we rounded a bend and were taken back by the beauty of this vista.


We are excited to visit Death Valley again - maybe next time it will be during the cooler months of the year :)